” Tired of working minimum-wage temporary jobs in his hometown of Chicago, Michael Sanchez-Ratliff took his grandfather’s advice and embarked on a cross-country trip last March that he hoped might change his life.

The plan: Hitch a ride with a family friend to California, visit relatives and check out community colleges there.

Sanchez-Ratliff, then 20, did something that in hindsight wasn’t the best idea, but isn’t illegal. He took with him his entire life savings, including about $14,000 provided by his grandmother and an additional $5,000 he had saved from working.”

” The much-anticipated trip took an unexpected turn about eight hours in, as flashing lights appeared in the rear-view mirror. A Pottawattamie County sheriff’s deputy stopped the vehicle for traveling 5 miles per hour over the speed limit.

An hour later, the deputy seized Sanchez-Ratliff’s cash. Despite a clean criminal record and a search that turned up no sign of drugs or other illegal activity, the deputy concluded the money must somehow be linked to a crime.

Sanchez-Ratliff is hardly alone.”

The Register continues …

” A Des Moines Register investigation into the use of state and federal civil forfeiture laws in Iowa reveals that thousands of people have surrendered their cash or property since 2009. The system is stacked against property owners while raising millions of dollars annually for law enforcement agencies across the state, something critics contend encourages policing for profit over promoting public safety.

The bulk of forfeitures reviewed by the Register resulted from traffic stops, often for minor violations and involving vehicles with out-of-state plates. But cash or property also was seized after police were called or sent to homes or businesses. In a few cases, police seized cash carried by johns caught up in prostitution stings.

Among the Register’s findings:

• Law enforcement agencies in all but seven of Iowa’s 99 counties have used the state’s civil forfeiture law since 2009. They have seized cash or other property 5,265 times. At least 542 more cases have used federal forfeiture laws.

• Many of those property owners — including Sanchez-Ratliff — are sent on their way after surrendering their cash or other property. A sampling of about 600 forfeiture cases from the Iowa counties that seized the most property over the past six years revealed dozens of instances with no record of an arrest or criminal charges.

• Iowa police departments and other law enforcement agencies have seized nearly $43 million over the past six years — money divided among agencies involved in each forfeiture case. Under law, the money is supposed to be used to “enhance” their crime-fighting capabilities.

• Most of the money is used to buy equipment, train officers and fund multiagency task forces. But it also has been spent on tropical fish, scented candles, mulch and other items that appear to have little or no direct link to law enforcement activities.

Local law enforcement agencies generally keep 90 percent of forfeited cash, split among the agencies that seized the property. The rest goes to the state, for use by the Iowa Attorney General’s office and the state’s public safety departments.”

The Des Moines Register offers a serious investigation into the blatantly unconstitutional process of stripping law abiding citizens of their money and possessions without due process , otherwise known as “civil” asset forfeiture . Read the whole thing and remember this is not an issue limited to Iowa , your state is doing it too .

Civil asset forfeiture reform now . Every “war” results in a loss of freedoms but none so much as the “war on drugs” .

You had the release of the Justice Department report that, while clearing officer Wilson and debunking “Hands up don’t shoot,” hit the police department for racial practices which led to protests, resignations, the shooting of two police officers and, last weekend, the arrest of Jeffrey Williams, the shooter.

But in all the news coverage, protests, and resulting spin, there is one aspect of this story that, for several reasons, is worthy of a lot more attention before it’s forgotten: the outrageous use of policing as a city revenue stream.

The City’s emphasis on revenue generation has a profound effect on FPD’s approach to law enforcement. Patrol assignment an schedules are geared toward aggressive enforcement of Ferguson’s municipal code, with insufficient thought given to whether enforcement strategies promote public safety or unnecessarily undermine community trust and cooperation.

This practice sets up a perverse reward system if you are a cop, the report explained:

Officer evaluations and promotions depend to an inordinate degree on “productivity” meaning the number of citations issued.

And the courts aren’t helping either:

The municipal court does not act as a neutral arbiter of the law or a check on unlawful police conduct. Instead the court primarily uses its judicial authority as the means to compel the payment of fines and fees that advance the City’s financial interests.

” Americans continue to name the government (18%) as the most important U.S. problem, a distinction it has had for the past four months. Americans’ mentions of the economy as the top problem (11%) dropped this month, leaving it tied with jobs (10%) for second place.

Though issues such as terrorism, healthcare, race relations and immigration have emerged among the top problems in recent polls, government, the economy and unemployment have been the dominant problems listed by Americans for more than a year.

The latest results are from a March 5-8 Gallup poll of 1,025 American adults.

While the ranking of the top two problems is similar to what Gallup found in February, mentions of the economy dropped from 16% to the current 11%. In a separate measure, Americans’ confidence in the economy had been dipping further into negative territory in late February and early March, but has been improving in recent days. “

Read it all and rejoice as the truth finally begins to dawn on the general public …

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.”

” Iowa State troopers can keep more than $30,000 in cash taken during a traffic stop, even though the owner was found not guilty, the Iowa Court of Appeals ruled last week.

In June 2012, Robert Pardee was riding in a car through Powesheik County, Iowa on I-80, when an Iowa State trooper pulled the driver over for a non-working taillight and tailgating. During the stop, state troopers found “a small amount of marijuana” and $33,100 in cash. Pardee was arrested and charged with possessing cannabis. In Iowa, first-time offenders can face up to six months in jail and/or $1,000 in fines.

One year later, a district court found him not guilty. As the criminal case proceeded against Pardee, the state also filed a civil forfeiture case against his seized cash. Despite his acquittal, first the district court and then the Iowa Court of Appeals ordered Pardee to forfeit his cash to the state.

Unlike criminal forfeiture, which does require a conviction to take the ill-gotten gains from criminals, civil forfeiturelets law enforcement seize and keep property from people without a criminal conviction, or even without filing charges.

Since civil forfeiture cases proceed in civil court, the state has to meet a far lower burden of proof to win. While criminal cases require proving “beyond a reasonable doubt,” for civil forfeiture in Iowa, the government need only show by a “preponderance of the evidence,” or “more likely than not,” that property was used to help facilitate a crime or are the proceeds of crime.”

Could anything possibly be more unAmerican than “civil” asset forfeiture ? It is nothing more that legalized theft and constitutes an arbitrary abuse of power , totally ignores the rule of law and demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are well on our way to tyranny . The Founders must be rolling in their graves .

” Scott Walker hit all the right notes when he took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday to address a standing-room-only crowd — even gamely handling a heckler.

Walker was talking up Republicans’ push to pass a right-to-work law in Wisconsin, a measure to weaken labor unions, when a heckler stood up and began shouting in the packed ballroom. What he said wasn’t clear, but Walker handled it like a pro: He quipped, “Apparently the protesters come [here] from Wisconsin as well.”

The governor, considered a top contender in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, got a quick standing ovation for his response — one of a number he got during his address.

After spending some time touting his strong domestic record as governor of Wisconsin, Walker sharply criticized the Obama administration for its ineffective strategy in the fight against the Islamic State, and its disapproval of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address before Congress.”

” AnIowa widow is charged with a crime and had nearly $19,000 seized from her bank after depositing her late husband’s legally earned money in a way that evaded federal reporting requirements.

Janet Malone, 68, of Dubuque, is facing civil and criminal proceedings under a law intended to help investigators track large sums of cash tied to criminal activity such as drug trafficking and terrorism. But some members of Congress and libertarian groups have complained that the IRS and federal prosecutors are unfairly using it against ordinary people who deposit lawfully obtained money in increments below $10,000.

At issue is a law requiring banks to report deposits of more than $10,000 cash to the federal government. Anyone who breaks deposits into increments below that level to avoid the requirement is committing a crime known as “structuring” — whether their money is legal or not.

The IRS has increasingly used civil forfeiture proceedings to seize money from individuals and small businesses suspected of structuring violations, according to a review by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian group. The agency seized $242 million in 2,500 cases from 2005 to 2012 — a third of which arose from nothing more than cash transactions under $10,000. Nearly half was returned after owners challenged the action, often a year later.”

” To the casual observer it appears that Virginia is run by violent psychopaths. That’s the takeaway from the recent report of an anti-poker SWAT team raid in Fairfax County, in which eight assault rifle-sporting police officers moved against ten card-playing civilians. The police possibly seized more than $200,000 from the game, of which 40 percent they eventually kept.

There was no indication that any of the players was armed. As a matter of fact, it appears that a gambler is more likely to be shot without provocation by the Fairfax Police than the other way around. The heavy firepower at the Fairfax raid was apparently motivated by the fact that “at times, illegal weapons are present” at such poker games, and that “Asian gangs” have allegedly targeted such events in the past. This is, then, a novel approach to law enforcement: as a matter of policy, Fairfax police now attempt to rob and steal from people before street gangs get around to doing it.

It is a mystery why we put up with this obscene police behavior. Gambling itself is not illegal in Virginia; it is simply controlled by the state. So the Fairfax police department did not bust these hapless poker players with guns drawn for doing something trulyimmoral and fully outlawed, merely for doing something in a way not approved by the state legislature. Were gambling actually forbidden in Virginia, then a crackdown could at least be understood, if not condoned in so paramilitary a fashion. Yet Virginia’s stance on the matter is not to treat gambling as malum in se, but rather as an instrumentum regni: our government prefers to funnel gambling money into its own coffers for its own ends, outlaw the same thing when it’s done outside of the state’s jurisdiction, and then steal the money of the poor fellows who happen to get caught. “

” The sunken Pirate Bay is undergoing salvage operations and could return to the waters of the internet late next week, if a new countdown timer on the original site is to be believed.

The timer, which is counting down to zero, stands at just over 10 days and 11 hours – but does not state what will happen at the end of the period.

At the bottom of the page a familiar Pirate Bay battleship logo sails towards a cartoon of an island harbour named “welcome home”. That could indicate a return to the internet for the self-proclaimed “galaxy’s most resilient BitTorrentsite”. “

In one seminar, captured on video in September, Harry S. Connelly Jr., the city attorney of Las Cruces, N.M., called them “little goodies.” And then Mr. Connelly described how officers in his jurisdiction could not wait to seize one man’s “exotic vehicle” outside a local bar.

“ A guy drives up in a 2008 Mercedes, brand new,” he explained. “Just so beautiful, I mean, the cops were undercover and they were just like ‘Ahhhh.’ And he gets out and he’s just reeking of alcohol. And it’s like, ‘Oh, my goodness, we can hardly wait.’ ”

Mr. Connelly was talking about a practice known as civil asset forfeiture, which allows the government, without ever securing a conviction or even filing a criminal charge, to seize property suspected of having ties to crime. The practice, expanded during the war on drugs in the 1980s, has become a staple of law enforcement agencies because it helps finance their work. It is difficult to tell how much has been seized by state and local law enforcement, but under a Justice Department program, the value of assets seized has ballooned to $4.3 billion in the 2012 fiscal year from $407 million in 2001. Much of that money is shared with local police forces. “

NY Timesoffers that story on police departments and their wish lists for asset forfeiture while BuzzFeed has a piece that dovetails nicely with it … “If In Doubt , Take It” … below is an excerpt :

” There are three kinds of people in this world: Those who’re outraged by civil forfeiture, those who don’t know what it is and those who profit from it.

Without even needing to charge someone with a crime, law enforcement can seize and keep cash, cars and even homes, by exercising civil forfeiture. Now the Institute for Justice has uncovered recordings of government officials from across the country making unsettling comments about this controversial power:

• One city attorney called his legal documents a “masterpiece of deception” and has won 96 percent of his forfeiture cases.• An assistant district attorney takes property, even from owners who have been acquitted, because “people are not found innocent, they are found not guilty.”• One government official doesn’t want to disclose information about civil forfeiture, because it might become a “bullet-point for people that are trying to fight the program.”• A prosecutor teaches other attorneys how to take property from innocent people. He even offers this piece of advice, “IF IN DOUBT…TAKE IT!”

Speaking at a forfeiture conference on September 10, 2014, Pete Connelly, City Attorney for Las Cruces, New Mexico, detailed his plan that would let police take the homes of people caught with tiny amounts of marijuana, even in states where the plant is legal:

“ I got to thinking this morning, in the paper that everybody is running around liberalizing marijuana or thinking about it. Putting it on the ballot. Taking it off the ballot. And I thought, boy, what a trap. You liberalize marijuana so somebody can sell it, they sell the marijuana out of the house, then you seize the house, which is like 10 bucks of marijuana and you [the police] get a $300,000 house. What a deal. That’s really exciting. They get what they want, and you get what you want. And the title of that article in the [Wall Street] Journal was ‘What’s Yours Is Theirs.’ I want to turn it around as ‘What’s Theirs is Yours.’” “

Be sure to read them both and funnel your outrage towards your nearest GOP representative . Demand that they eliminate the policy of legalized theft otherwise known as “Civil asset forfeiture” .

Defending the practice of seizing property from American citizens who have not only not been convicted of a crime , but in most cases not even charged , is an impossible task and we would welcome any effort by the incoming congressional Republicans to put their Statist opponents on the other side of the aisle on the spot with a vote to abolish this plainly unconstitutional law .

” It probably seemed like a bright idea at the time: Let the police seize the ill-gotten gains of alleged drug dealers and other suspected criminals and sell it, using the proceeds to buy much-needed crime-fighting gear.

Unfortunately, the process—civil asset forfeiture—did not require convicting anybody of a crime. In fact, it didn’t even require charging anybody with a crime. Not surprisingly, this led to rampant abuse, which has been abundantly documented for many years. Various reform efforts, including a 2000 federal law, have been unable to stop what’s become known as policing for profit.

But Virginia lawmaker Mark Cole is going to give it another shot. That’s as good a sign as any that civil asset forfeiture has jumped the shark. “

We wish Mr Cole good luck . Legalized theft , aka civil asset forfeiture , is an abuse that is completely incompatible with the spirit of America as well as being blatantly unconstitutional .

” After the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the government called on police to become the eyes and ears of homeland security on America’s highways.

Local officers, county deputies and state troopers were encouraged to act more aggressively in searching for suspicious people, drugs and other contraband. The departments of Homeland Security and Justice spent millions on police training.

Behind the rise in seizures is a little-known cottage industry of private police-training firms that teach the techniques of “highway interdiction” to departments across the country.

One of those firms created a private intelligence network known as Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System that enabled police nationwide to share detailed reports about American motorists — criminals and the innocent alike — including their Social Security numbers, addresses and identifying tattoos, as well as hunches about which drivers to stop.”

” Making a grand splash on the Multiple Listing Service this week is a Hillsboro Beach, Fla., mansion that, at $139 million, is the most expensive home publicly listed for sale in the United States.

Currently under construction, the palatial estate known as Le Palais Royal draws inspiration from the Palace of Versailles with gold leafing, stone walkways, balconies and six fountains.”

” Entered through a vaulted foyer, the residence centers on a sweeping, $2-million staircase cased in steel-iron and gold leaf. Among the more opulent features are an Imax home theater, a 1,300-gallon aquarium and a subterranean garage with parking for 30 vehicles.

The second-floor presidential suite comes complete with private outdoor terrace with a plunge pool while three additional master suites sport Jacuzzis with ocean views. In all, the mansion touts 11 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms in 60,000 square feet of living space.”

” Set beneath a 12-foot cascading waterfall, an infinity edge pool features an LED-lit water slide, fire pit and swim-up bar. Above the waterfall is a Jacuzzi. Designed for year-round enjoyment, an entertainer’s courtyard includes a summer kitchen, a pizza oven, an outdoor lounge and an entrance to an indoor spa and massage rooms.

For the mega-yacht owner, Le Palais Royal boasts a 492-foot dock capable of accommodating seafaring vessels up to 185 feet in length. Occupying four acres on Millionaires Mile, the estate also includes 465 feet of private beachfront and is slated for completion in 2015. “

If sold for the asking price , this amazing private residence would surpass the recent purchase price of Copper Beech Farm in Connecticut but still come up short of this property on Further Lane in Amagansett , NY by six million dollars .

” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) today announced he has introduced the FAIR (Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration) Act to add a bit more due process to the system by which federal prosecutors seize citizens’ assets, often before ever proving they’ve broken the law. From his office’s announcement:

The FAIR Act would change federal law and protect the rights of property owners by requiring that the government prove its case with clear and convincing evidence before forfeiting seized property. State law enforcement agencies will have to abide by state law when forfeiting seized property. Finally, the legislation would remove the profit incentive for forfeiture by redirecting forfeitures assets from the Attorney General’s Asset Forfeiture Fund to the Treasury’s General Fund.

” The federal government has made it far too easy for government agencies to take and profit from the property of those who have not been convicted of a crime. The FAIR Act will ensure that government agencies no longer profit from taking the property of U.S. citizens without due process, while maintaining the ability of courts to order the surrender of proceeds of crime,” Sen. Paul said. “

” A plan backed by venture capitalist Tim Draper to split California into six states has gained enough signatures to make the November 2016 ballot, the plan’s backers say.

A Twitter account belonging to the nonprofit Six Californias tweeted on Monday that “#SixCalifornias will be submitting signatures in Sacramento tomorrow for placement on the November 2016 ballot. Stay tuned for coverage!”

The six carved out states would look like this:

Jefferson: The northern part of the state, including Humboldt and Mendocino counties.

North California: The wine country counties of Sonoma and Napa, as well as the Sierra Nevada region.

Silicon Valley: Including San Francisco, San Jose and most of what’s considered the San Francisco Bay Area.

But interest in the plan has been strong enough to send Draper and his campaigners to Sacramento — for now, the one and only capital of California. They’ll reveal the exact number of signatures they received on Tuesday in a news conference, according to the Chronicle.”

” Texas, the second largest state by population and land mass in the nation has decided to take state funded action to protect its citizens from the multitude of illegal immigrants swarming over the border. The federal government’s inaction on border control poses a huge risk to the safety and security of not just Texans, but to all Americans. Texas has had enough of the ‘hurry up and wait” attitude adopted by not just the Obama administration but by the politicians in Washington. The priorities of these politicians are skewed by political ambition and party line agendas that do little to serve the nation but often serve to get them re-elected. If current trends are any indication however, these so-called public servants may be in for a shake-up come November 2014.

In a recent joint statement by Texas Governor Rick Perry, Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and state House Speaker Joe Straus, Perry said that the state cannot “afford to wait for Washington” and he has authorized a “surge” in border patrol activities. Perry further stated that his administration (ostensibly as opposed to the Obama administration) will not “sit idly by while the safety and security of citizens are threatened.” To facilitate this Governor Perry has authorized the Department of Public Safety to spend $1.3 million in emergency spending a week to further secure the Texas border by preventing illegal crossings and apprehending illegal immigrants who do successfully slip through security.

The surge includes air support and boots on the ground and comes on the heels of the tremendous influx of not only illegal immigrants from Mexico, but also those who have come from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras hoping to cash in on the Obama administration’s reputation for extreme leniency. These illegal immigrants are referred to by border patrol as “Other than Mexican” (OTM). Currently, there are three U.S. military bases overflowing with children who have been trafficked to the U.S. by families hoping to follow and this has created a humanitarian crisis with no practical solution in sight. “

” Lawmakers are up in arms over an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal that they fear could give federal officials expansive new powers over private property and farmland.

The EPA is seeking to redefine what bodies of water fall under the agency’s jurisdiction for controlling pollution. The scope of the final Clean Water Act (CWA) rule is of critical importance, as any area covered would require a federal permit for certain activities.

The rule is facing a groundswell of opposition from lawmakers, who fear the EPA is engaged in a “land grab” that could stop farmers and others from building fences, digging ditches or draining ponds.

More than 260 lawmakers, spanning both chambers and parties, have come out against the EPA’s action.”

” A group of 231 members of the House recently sent a letter to the EPA and the Army Corps asking them to withdraw the regulation. The group included almost the entire House Republican conference, as well as 19 Democrats.

“ Although your agencies have maintained that the rule is narrow and clarifies CWA jurisdiction, it in face aggressively expands federal authority under the CWA while bypassing Congress and creating unnecessary ambiguity,” the lawmakers wrote.

The proposed rule is eight years in the making, and aims toclear up ambiguity in federal regulations that the EPA says was created by a series of Supreme Court decisions. “

” The EPA says the new rule — dubbed “Waters of the United States,” or “WOTUS” — would not massively expand its authority, nor would it create powers over back yards, wet spots or puddles.

“ The rule would place features such as ditches, ephemeral drainages, ponds (natural or man-made, prairie potholes, seeps, flood plains, and other occasionally or seasonally wet areas under federal control,” the House lawmakers wrote in their letter.

The Senate also has a significant faction fighting the EPA’s action. Thirty Republican senators signed onto a bill introduced this week that would prevent the EPA and the Army Corps from moving forward.”

This may or may not have been a police drone . There is every possibility that the drone was a private one , perhaps owned by a blogger or amateur reporter just seeking unique video footage . If so we are sorry to see the destruction of private property . However , if it was a police drone then all we can say is congratulations … good shooting .

” An organization of former Border Patrol agents Wednesday charged that the federal government, under the administration of President Obama, is deliberately arranging for a flood of immigrant children to arrive in America for political purposes.

“ This is not a humanitarian crisis. It is a predictable, orchestrated and contrived assault on the compassionate side of Americans by her political leaders that knowingly puts minor illegal alien children at risk for purely political purposes,” said the statement released by the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers.

“ Certainly, we are not gullible enough to believe that thousands of unaccompanied minor Central American children came to America without the encouragement, aid and assistance of the United States government,” the officers said.

“ Anyone that has taken two six- to seven-year-old children to an amusement park can only imagine the problems associated with bringing thousands of unaccompanied children that age up through Mexico and into the United States.”

* RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations (ed. note – states) under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)

It is highly ironic the Mr Alinsky passed away 42 years ago today , June 12 , 1972 . The “crisis” on our southern border also bears the hallmarks of the Cloward-Piven strategy of overloading the system in order to create the need for the State to step in with a “solution” . Their hallmark essay of 1966set the ground rules and provided a handbook for the eventual conversion of the Land of Liberty into a socialist “paradise” …

” By crisis, we mean a publicly visible disruption in some institutional sphere. Crisis can occur spontaneously (e.g., riots) or as the intended result of tactics of demonstration and protest which either generate institutional disruption or bring unrecognized disruption to public attention. Public trouble is a political liability, it calls for action by political leaders to stabilize the situation. Because crisis usually creates or exposes conflict, it threatens to produce cleavages in a political consensus which politicians will ordinarily act to avert.”

” One of the founders of file-sharing website Pirate Bay has been arrested in southern Sweden to serve an outstanding sentence for copyright violations after being on the run for nearly two years, Swedish police said on Saturday.

Peter Sunde had been wanted by Interpol since 2012 after being sentenced in Sweden to prison and fined for breaching copyright laws.”

” We have been looking for him since 2012,” said Carolina Ekeus, spokeswoman at the Swedish National Police Board. “He was given eight months in jail so he has to serve his sentence.”

Ekeus said Sunde had been arrested on Saturday in the southern Swedish county of Skane but she was not able to provide further details.

Four men linked to Pirate Bay were originally sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of 32 million crowns ($4.8 million). An appeals court later reduced the prison sentences by varying amounts, but raised the fine to 46 million Swedish crowns ($6.9 million).”